


Scars to Your Beautiful

by lightrock105



Series: A Miraculous World [4]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Chloe is nobody's favorite character, F/M, Happy Ending, Identity Reveal, Pool Party, Scars, Short Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:33:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25723636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightrock105/pseuds/lightrock105
Summary: Adrien and Marinette, ashamed of their scars from years of fighting Akumas attempt to cover them in desperation for a pool party but it doesn't exactly go to plan.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Chloé Bourgeois, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Tikki
Series: A Miraculous World [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1863928
Comments: 13
Kudos: 206





	Scars to Your Beautiful

Chloé had decided to throw her graduation party on the Grand Palais' roof. A pool party. And despite her wishes and excessive begging, _everyone_ in her class was invited. Although she had (somewhat) grown up through high school, she still despised Marinette for reasons unknown. She would still poke fun at her, trip her, and given the circumstance, blame her whenever possible, but she was usually no longer outright vicious and out for actual blood.

Even though it was _Chloé Bourgeois_ who was hosting the party, it was all anyone could talk about for weeks leading up to it. The whole grade was excited for the warm weather, optimal for tanning and for pool games. They were also eager for the food because, with the kind of money Chloé had, she could afford the best of the best.

Alya had been freaking out since the invitations were handed out. She wouldn’t shut up to Marinette about how she should wear a "sexy little bikini" to impress Adrien. Marinette was not amused and was seriously considering throwing her best friend off of a roof when Alya mentioned it for the fifth time, but relented when Tikki shot her a look.

She, too, had grown up throughout high school. Although she was still desperately in love with Adrien, she no longer stuttered or messed up her words. She found a way to bury her feelings around him because if he wasn’t her boyfriend, he was at least an amazing friend. And she would honor and treasure that friendship for the rest of her life.

But seriously, a _bikini_?! Marinette could hardly even wear a tank top nowadays. There were just too many unexplainable scars from Akuma attacks. She couldn’t keep using the excuse that she was clumsy and knocked things over in her parent's bakery. Clumsy would not cover some of the damage that was visible on her body.

Yet, she would humor Alya by wearing one...underneath a shirt and shorts of course. No one needed to see the ugly slashes that marred her skin.

Adrien didn't even want to show up to the party at all. He had no qualms with missing it. Pool parties meant swimsuits. Swimsuits for guys meant no shirts. And there were three very big scars across his chest that would get some funny glances and pointed questions if he went without a top. But Natalie and his father insisted that he must go "for the sake of keeping a friendship with André Bourgeois." So he spent all of his free time finding matching trunks and a top that was both fashionable (because Gabriel wouldn’t allow him to show up in anything but) and was able to cover every last imperfection on his skin.

* * *

A bus took everyone from the graduation ceremony straight to the Grand Palais. Marinette and Adrien were visibly sweating, afraid that one wrong move could expose them. They had both sat at the very back of the bus, across the aisle from one another (Alya had winked at Marinette when she noticed them sitting near each other). But after everyone exited the bus, Adrien and Marinette had no choice but to do so as well...giving them the perfect opportunity to clash heads and make them fall back into their seats.

“Ow...I'm sorry, Marinette,” Adrien groaned. He rubbed his head and looked up at his friend to find her gently prodding at her eye, wincing as she did so.

“No problem. I’m used to it by now. You have no idea how many times I run into walls a day.” This made Adrien smirk as he could imagine her doing such. There were numerous times when he saw this himself as well.

Outside, he heard the last few people enter the hotel and figured that they should probably go before the driver drove off with them inside. He held out his hand, which Marinette gratefully accepted.

They walked off the bus (single file, no more head bumping) and into the hot June weather. Both shifted uncomfortably at the change in air temperature and humidity and quickened their pace to get inside where the air conditioning was waiting.

“So, I heard that you’ll be staying in Paris for university. There are a lot of better design schools out there. Why stay here?” Adrien asked, trying to fill the silence that had settled between them. Marinette jolted. She couldn’t tell him it was because she was Ladybug and had a duty to protect the city. That was not a conversation she was willing to have. And Tikki would probably kill her if she did.

So, she shrugged and answered with, “Well, I’m an only child. I worry about my parents and something happening to them. They’ve got no one but themselves once I leave. Besides my grandpa, my family is usually not even near France. I want to stay close if something goes wrong.”

Adrien hummed. “That’s very thoughtful of you.” Marinette shrugged again.

“Well, what about you? I’m sure you’ve got a whole list of places you would wanna go after high school. Why are _you_ staying here?” Marinette suddenly made a small noise, almost in disapproval of something. “Your father isn’t making you do it, is he?”

Adrien chuckled, but like her, nearly froze. “No, no. Paris is a great place to be based out of. If I eventually find something that I’m interested in, I can always transfer. But for now, why go to a special school to major in something when I don’t even know what I want to do yet?” Marinette nodded, happy with his answer, even if it wasn’t quite the truth. She would hate to see that his father was still trying to control his life.

A small bing interrupted them, letting them know that the elevator had reached their floor. He patted her shoulder.

“See you up there.” He held up a bag. “Gotta change. I can’t exactly go swimming in jeans, can I?” He half-joked. He wished he could. He did _not_ want the opportunity for his scars to be on display, but not changing would look suspicious.

“Yeah...gotta change.” Marinette didn’t want to change either. Granted, her bathing suit was already on, and she had clothes on over them, but she didn’t want to take them off.

Adrien saw that she didn’t particularly to go out either, and grabbed the opportunity while it awaited him. 

“Wait, wait. How about...we stay inside for a little bit. They won’t miss us. I bet they won’t even know we’re gone. What do you say?” She smiled and nodded. Anything to put off going to the pool. And to spend more time with Adrien.

* * *

Chloé was getting antsy. Where was Adrien? She saw him on the bus. She knew he came into the building. So where could he have possibly gone?

She decided to go looking for him, hoping to find him just caught up with something to do with his father. She would hate it if he had to leave before the party even started. He was the only person she really even wanted here.

“Adrien?” She called through the halls. No one answered. Curiously, she started to open the doors that were dedicated to her class, in case he just didn’t know how late he was.

Imagine her surprise when the third door she opened held Marinette and Adrien on the floor, leaning against a couch, laughing at some unknown joke.

Surprise turned into anger at the bluenette.

“You bitch,” she sneered, scaring the two teens. Adrien raised an eyebrow in surprise while Marinette simply sighed. She had been waiting all year for Chloé to revert back to the person Marinette always knew her to be. “You just couldn’t stay away, could you? You couldn’t remember to stay away from what’s mine?!” Adrien started to correct her because he definitely wasn't hers, when the deranged blonde grabbed Marinette by her hair and yanked her up. Marinette gave a small shriek at the pain, trying to pull her hair out of Chloé's grasp, but realized it only made the pain worse.

Adrien, not really knowing what to do and how to calm down Chloé, followed them up the stairs and unto the roof. and tried to talk her down.

"Chloé, seriously, please stop," he pleaded. His arm reached out to try to free Marinette's hair, but Chloé just pulled Marinette along faster, out of Adrien's grasp. "You really don't have to do anything. Marinette wasn't...please, she really didn't...Chloé _stop_." But she didn't and instead, pulled her through the doors to the roof and dragged Marinette out.

Chloé now had Marinette facing her with her back to the pool. She grabbed the bottom of her shirt and pulled up, taking the shirt off the girl, then pushed her backward, making her lose her balance and fall into the water. He heard the shocked gasps of his friends and his classmates and she fell. Alya was the first to react, grabbing a dry towel from her bag and racing over to the edge to help pull her out. Everyone else was looking at Chloé in shock, but Adrien was still looking at his now drenched friend. He had seen something just before she fell, and when she was helped out of the water, he saw it again.

Huge scars across her torso and chest. Long, short, thick, thin, jagged, straight. You name it, it was there. A small gasp escaped him. How on earth did they get there? But three small, round scars in the center of her stomach caught his eye. They looked familiar. Too familiar.

Ladybug had those same scars. They were facing this Akuma who really liked guns for some reason, and Ladybug had gotten distracted. She was trying to get a child to safety and out of the path of the Akuma, but while doing so, neglected to pay attention to her surroundings. He had watched helplessly from the other side of the Pont des Arts as bullets pierced her stomach and stayed there. She just kind of looked down at them in horror, shoved the child behind her, and slowly led the Akuma away from the hysterical girl. She had fainted very quickly after capturing the Akuma, and he tried to bring her to a hospital to have her stitched up. She had woken up by then and refused to get a blood bag because she was worried that while trying to match blood types, it would give away her identity. For the next few weeks, he had made sure that his lady took it easy, trying to do most of the work during attacks so she wouldn’t strain herself or rip open her stitches.

He could never forget those three spots.

“M’Lady?” he muttered under his breath. “Oh my god.” She was here the whole time. Sitting behind him, or next to him, or across from him. Sewing a new shirt, doodling her favorite flower, reading a book, writing an essay. He was literally just making her laugh a few minutes ago.

It was so painfully obvious, how could he not see it?! Every little kind act Marinette did, he could see Ladybug doing. Every brave decision Ladybug did, he could see Marinette doing too.

In the background, he heard Alya let out a small shriek and knew that this was the first time she had seen what was on her best friend’s body. 

“My god, Marinette. What happened to you?” Before she could try to think of an answer, Adrien came speeding in and took her away, quite literally dragging her back to the room they were in before. Neither of them seemed bothered by confused and worried glances they were receiving or the trail of pool water Mariette was leaving on the plush carpet.

“A-Adrien? Wh-what are you d-doing?” Her teeth were chatting, whether from being cold or scared, even she couldn’t tell.

He sat her down on a couch and rummaged around in his bag until he found his large towel, enough to cover her whole body. Wrapping it around her, he, too, sat down.

“Marinette...” he stopped. He didn’t know how to continue. She looked so ashamed of herself.

“Are you...are you Ladybug?” She blinked. And swallowed audibly.

“What? N-no of course not, why would you even say that? Haha, Ladybug. That's ridiculous, that's..." she rambled hysterically before taking a deep breath to make herself calm down. "I-I...yes,” she then whispered, looking down and staring a hole into the towel. She didn’t want to look up. She didn’t want to see the look of disgust when he found out that the famed heroine of Paris, the strong, independent Ladybug, was just plain, old Marinette.

But when she did, she was met with unexpected delight in his eyes and a very small smile on his lips. His gaze drifted down to her exposed stomach, to those three awful scars that would be forever burned into his memory, and the happiness on his face faded.

“I’m sorry. I should have gotten there sooner. If-if I had just run faster or-or maybe gotten to the Akuma quicker. I could have saved you all that pain and time healing."

But Marinette stopped listening and didn’t hear the rest of what he was saying. She was putting it all together.

“Oh my g- _Chat_?” She blurted out. Adrien seemed to realize that she didn’t know and red started creeping up his neck. He chuckled and rubbed the back of it.

“Um...s-surprise?” Marinette gaped at him, eyes wide in surprise. He took a deep breath and took off his top. Her eyes trailed down to see similar markings on him. Three long, perfectly straight lines were running across his torso. She’d know them anywhere. They were fighting this bear-like Akuma when he was suddenly swatted at and the claws ripped into him.

Marinette ran her fingers across them and Adrien shuddered at the feeling. It wasn't his favorite memory, but having Marinette here with him now, not giving him the pity-filled look he got from Natalie or the disgusted one from his father, made it a little better.

“I’m sorry. I should’ve seen it coming. I might have been able to pull you out of the way. You wouldn’t have these if it wasn’t for me.” He couldn’t take it any longer, hearing his lady talk badly about herself so he did the one thing he could that he knew would shut her up.

He kissed her.

And she kissed back.

And it was all so new, yet so familiar. It felt like home.

“I think I might love you, M’Lady,” he whispered into it. She giggled lightly and threaded her fingers through his hair. It was just as soft as she always thought it would be.

“I think I might love you too, silly kitty.”

**Author's Note:**

> I know it's a little bit jumpy, and I might fix it later, but if I don't...oh well.
> 
> I've been getting a lot of rather rude comments about Adrien's behavior in this particular story (I edited it as much as I was willing to, so you're going to have to live with it), and I would just like to say a few things. First, Adrien isn't real, so nobody really knows how he would act, so please stop telling me that he would never do *enter action here.* Second, this is a STORY, FICTION, an IDEA that popped into my head very late one night, and ~I~ am the author; therefore, I took some creative license and made him how I wanted him portrayed in this particular setting. Lastly, you are of course allowed to not like what I write, but please don't mistake that with telling me how to write my own stories.
> 
> To those of you who leave positive comments or constructive criticism: I thank you. You make my day so much better when you say that you enjoyed the weird stories I decided to post or even when you inform me that you caught a mistake. You bring a smile to my face 😊


End file.
